House Approves Bush’s Request for Higher NSF Budget

The House of Representatives passed a spending bill for the National Science Foundation that will increase the agency’s budget by approximately 8 percent in the 2007 fiscal year, which begins on October 1st.

The chamber approved the budgeting contained in a measure that passed the House Appropriations Committee two weeks ago. The additional funds are part of President Bush’s American Competitiveness Initiative, a plan to improve the quality of American science education and research...(American Institute of Physics)

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Spellings Commission Report Mum on Education Technology

A first draft of a report by the Spellings Commission, the Bush administration’s panel (named after Department of Education Secretary Margaret Spellings) established to study the future of higher education, includes just two references to technology.

The first reference notes that colleges and universities “are somewhat insulated from the consequences of their own spending decisions” by the prevalence of third party payment sources in higher education. These include student loan agencies and private donors. The second reference to technology is to a 1999 program in course redesign developed by the National Center for Academic Transformation, which “helps institutions enhance quality of instruction, improve learning, and reduce costs through the use of technology and innovative teaching.”

Charles Miller, chairman of the Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education, said the draft is likely to undergo significant changes as the full Commission starts providing its input...

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Forrester: Skills Shortage Will Worsen Unless Industry Seeds IT Talent

A new report from Forrester shows that IT and programming studies enrollment is significantly dropping. Supposed reasons behind the findings include high school counselors and parents warning students about corporate outsourcing.

Laurie Orlov, Forrester’s vice president and research director, says industry professionals and higher education institutions need to work together to address this problem...(InformationWeek)

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